Bibles

The Bible has been central to the development of the printed
book. It claims the position of the first book to be printed using
moveable type; the demand for copies in the original Hebrew and
Greek, and in Latin and vernacular translations drove the book
trade across Europe; and thousands of copies of Bibles, New and Old
Testaments and Psalters were printed in almost every country.

The National Library of Scotland's holdings provide evidence for
all of these points. The Advocates Library acquired a copy of the
Gutenberg Bible
(1455), appropriately shelfmarked as Inc.1, the first item in our
collection of incunabula (items printed before 1501). We also hold
important examples of early modern Biblical scholarship, such as
the first Polyglot Bible (shelfmark: L.1.c). The Hugh Sharp
collection contains a fine copy of the first edition of the
Authorised or King James Bible (H.S.385).

The Bible in Scotland

In Scotland, the Bible and the Psalms were for centuries found
in almost every home, and the many copies in the Library reflect
the social history of book ownership in Scotland, from such luxury
items as a silver-bound edition of the Psalms (Bdg.s.888) (shown
left) to the humble mass-produced copy used by a Church of Scotland
minister who happened to be the father of
John Logie Baird, inventor of television (AB.1.201.15).

Some Bibles in our collections were used to record generations
of the families who owned them. Others still are fine examples of
Scottish bindings, demonstrating the high esteem their owners held
them in. Images of some of these are available in the Scottish Bookbinding
section of our Digital
Gallery. Increasingly this kind of information about our copies
is being added to our main
catalogue.

The first complete Bible to be printed in Scotland was the
'Bassandyne Bible', of which there are two copies in the Library
(H.9.a.7; Cwn.1091). Thomas Bassandyne was an Edinburgh printer who
published the New Testament in 1576. He died in 1577. His fellow
burgess Alexander Arbuthnet added the Old Testament and published
the complete text in 1579. Bassandyne and Arbuthnet reprinted the
second edition of the Geneva Bible, first published in English in
1560. The earliest part of the Bible to appear in print in Scotland
was the metrical psalter which appeared in the Book of Common
Order. Robert Lekpreuik printed the first dated edition in
Edinburgh in 1564; copies are held by the Folger Shakespeare
Library, Washington DC, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

The Bible in Scots

No complete text of the Bible in Scots has yet been published.
Murdoch Nisbet produced a Scots version of the New Testament,
translated from the Wycliffite Bible of John Purvey, between 1513
and 1539, but it remained in manuscript, known only to his family.
Now published by the Scottish Text Society, it is available on the
open shelves of the General Reading
Room (SCS.STES1.46). The first translation of the New Testament
into Scots from the original Greek was produced by William Lorimer
and published posthumously. A copy of the first edition is also in
the General Reading Room (Misc.12).

The Bible in Gaelic

While the Book of Common Order ('Foirm na nurrnuidheadh', 1567)
was the first work in Gaelic to be printed in Scotland or Ireland,
the Bible in Scottish Gaelic was not complete until 1801. During
the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish Gaelic versions were available
in Scotland. The complete metrical Psalter in Gaelic appeared in
1694 (F.7.g.8(1); RB.s.1414). The Scottish Society for the
Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) published a Gaelic New
Testament in 1767 in Edinburgh (L.38.d). The Old Testament was
published in four separate parts between 1783 and 1801 (L.95.d). In
1807, the full text appeared (NF.719.d.10); this edition was
revised entirely and republished in 1826 (L.85.e).

Finding Bibles in the National Library of Scotland

We aim to record all our Bibles in our main
catalogue, although for pre-1700 Bibles it is still sometimes
necessary to check catalogue 1 on microfiche. The Library's
holdings of books printed in Great Britain and North America before
1801 appear in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC). You can
access ESTC free via the British Library website.

Many of our special
collections contain editions of the Bible that are Scottish or
otherwise important in the history of printed Bibles. The Haxton
collection consists of 127 volumes containing editions of the Bible
and parts of the Scriptures in English, nearly all dating from the
16th and the 17th centuries. Other relevant special collections
include the Cowan, Fort Augustus, Hugh Sharp, Perth St Ninian's
Cathedral Library, Royal Blind School, Thorkelin and Westlake
collections, containing material ranging from Bibles printed in
Braille to the first complete Bible in Icelandic.

Further reading

Daniell, David. 'The Bible in English: its History and
Influence'. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
(H4.204.0195)

Darlow, T H and H F Moule. 'Historical Catalogue of the Printed
Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and
Foreign Bible Society'. London: The Bible House, 1903-11 (SU.37
(shelved at B.2 Bib))

De Hamel, C F R. 'The Book: A History of the Bible'. London:
Phaidon, 2001 (H8.202.0768)

Herbert, A S. 'Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the
English Bible. London: The British and Foreign Bible Society, 1968
(NRR) This is a revised edition of part of Darlow and Moule